Why we invest alongside our clients, not just advise them

Most advisers get paid the same fee whether a deal works or doesn't. That's not a criticism — it's just the structure of the business. Advisory fees are earned on completion, not on outcome.

We do it differently, and it's worth saying plainly why. When we take a principal position alongside a client, we're not doing it as a marketing gesture. We're doing it because it changes the questions we ask. An adviser who only earns a fee has an incentive to get a deal done. An adviser who's also putting capital in has an incentive to get the right deal done, on terms that actually hold up three years later.

It means the valuation assumptions get the same scrutiny we'd want if our own capital depended on them — because on these deals, it does. It means we read the shareholder agreement as if we're going to be bound by it — because we are. It means the diligence questions we ask a founder are the same ones we'd want answered if it were our own money going in unprotected, because it is.

It also means something for how you should read anything we bring to you. If we've put our own capital into a deal we're introducing, weight it accordingly.

We don't do this on every mandate. Plenty of our advisory work is pure advisory, and we say so. But where we've taken a position, we'll tell you.